At the recent meeting of the Entomological Club of the A. A. A. S., Dr. Horn found occasion to say that “natule has no genera, but species only”—genera are mere artificial aids to classification, are seldom sharply defined, and are of very unequal value, according as the student is inclined to value characters; nor are the same characters useful in all the orders, nor indeed in the several families in the same order.

The important part of Dr. Horn's remarks, for the present purpose, is the assertion that “nature has no genera.” That Dr. Horn has an experience in American Coleoptera large enongh to render such an observation from him of great weight, no one will dispute, and taking the Lepidoptera into consideration I am led by my studies to agree with him thoroughly.